A Commitment to ActionFaculty work propels the University into the national spotlight.

For the faculty of the University of Virginia, the life of
the mind is one of action as well as contemplation. They continually
seek new ways to enrich the student experience, to increase
the relevance and impact of their teaching, and to introduce new
programs of study. In their wide-ranging and productive efforts
to advance knowledge, they have the confidence to embrace new
approaches, to build powerful collaborations with colleagues in
other disciplines that can yield new discoveries, and to devise
imaginative and effective ways to make these discoveries available
to the society they serve. This commitment to action is palpable
across the Grounds and gives the University the exceptional
vitality it enjoys today.

Ed Ayers, dean of Arts and Sciences, was
named CASE Professor of the Year and
winner of the Bancroft Prize.

AT THE TOP OF THEIR PROFESSION
The University makes great demands of
its faculty, and in meeting those demands,
they are setting the national standard for
their peers. Nowhere is this more evident
than in the achievements of Edward L.
Ayers, dean of the College and Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences and the Hugh P.
Kelly Professor of History. For his superb
teaching and his devotion to undergraduate
education, he was named the 2003 Professor
of the Year for doctoral and research universities
by the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching and the Council
for Advancement and Support of Education.
Several months later, Dean Ayers was honored
for his innovative scholarship when he
received the coveted Bancroft Prize for his
latest book, In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of
America, 1859–1863, which views the Civil War through the eyes
of individuals—soldiers and civilians, slaves and free blacks,
women and men. Awarded by the trustees of Columbia
University, the Bancroft Prize honors the year’s best work in
American history, biography, and diplomacy.

Two other College faculty members,William B. Quandt and
Ann Beattie, were elected to the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. Mr. Quandt, the Edward R. Stettinius Professor of
Politics, recently stepped down as vice provost for international
affairs. As a member of the National Security Council staff, he
was involved in negotiating the Camp David Accords and the
peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.Ms. Beattie, the Edgar
Allan Poe Professor of English, has won critical acclaim for novels
and short stories that depict the generation of Americans who
grew up in the 1960s. Patricia Spacks, the Edgar F. Shannon, Jr.,
Professor of English, has accepted a third term as president of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In the Department of Civil Engineering, Nicholas J. Garber
was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest
distinction accorded to members of his profession. An expert
on traffic operations and highway safety, he
joins nine of his University of Virginia colleagues
as members of the organization,
including academy president William Wulf,
the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company Professor of Computer Science.

Brown Before and After

As the nation observed the
fiftieth anniversary of Brown v.
Board of Education, law professor
Michael J. Klarman shed
new light on the landmark
decision with a timely and
widely acclaimed book. Titled
From Jim Crow to Civil Rights:
The Supreme Court and the
Struggle for Racial Equality,
the work traces the history of
Southern segregation and
shows how American racial
attitudes changed dramatically
after World War II, paving the
way for Brown. The political
inferno that followed the
ruling helped speed the pace
of reform. "Though gradual
change was going on, … white
Southerners, especially in the
Deep South, would not have
given up school segregation
for many decades longer had
it not been for this violent
display that led Northerners to
demand federal intervention,"
contends Mr. Klarman, who
holds the James Monroe
Distinguished Professorship
in Law.

Michael Klarman takes a new
look at the court and the
struggle for civil rights.

Other faculty members receiving special
recognition this past year include the following:
• Joseph C. Miller, the T. Cary Johnson, Jr.,
Professor of History and an authority on the
African slave trade, was one of 185 scholars
chosen from among 3,200 applicants to
receive 2004 Guggenheim fellowships.
Prof. Miller is a past president of the
American Historical Association and former
dean of undergraduate programs in Arts and
Sciences.
• Sidney Hecht, the John W. Mallet
Professor of Chemistry, was elected a fellow
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His efforts to synthesize antitumor compounds are pointing the
way to more effective cancer treatments.
• William McDonough, a visiting professor in the Darden
Graduate School of Business Administration and former dean
of the School of Architecture, received the Columbia Business
School’s Botwinick Prize in Ethical Practice in the Professions.
He is known worldwide for his advocacy of sustainable design.
• Edmund Russell, associate professor of engineering, received
the Edelstein Prize from the Society for the History of
Technology for his book War and Nature: Fighting Humans and
Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring.
• Dr. Vamik Volkan, professor emeritus of psychiatry and
founder of the Center for the Study of the Mind and Human
Interaction, was presented the 2003 Sigmund Freud Award for
Psychotherapy, given by the city of Vienna in collaboration with
the World Council of Psychotherapy.Dr. Volkan has pioneered
the use of psychotherapeutic techniques to ease ethnic conflict
around the world.
• Pam Roland of the School of Continuing and Professional
Studies received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the
University Continuing Education
Association. She is the
lead faculty member in the
school’s "Career Switcher"
teacher preparation program,
which was declared the best
noncredit academic program in
the nation by the UCEA.

Among faculty receiving national
honors this year were, from top,
Ann Beattie, Nicholas Garber, and
William Quandt.

ENRICHING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
In schools and programs
across the Grounds, faculty
members are working to
enhance the curricular experience.
As they develop courses
that offer fresh perspectives
and cover new ground, they
increasingly draw on multiple
disciplines.

A case in point is the
Common Course series for
students in the College of Arts
and Sciences and the Curry
School of Education. Developed
in conjunction with the
Teachers for a New Era initiative,
these courses are taught by
faculty from multiple departments
and show how information
can be synthesized across
disciplinary lines. While this
approach is valuable for any
student, it is particularly useful
for those planning to become
teachers, who must often integrate
broad areas of science
and the humanities in the
classroom. This past spring,
"Designing Matter," a new
Common Course coordinated
by chemist Cassandra L.
Fraser, the Cavaliers’ Distinguished
Teaching Professor,
examined our relationship to
matter from subatomic to cosmic
scales.Taught in Pavilion
VIII on the Lawn, it brought
together experts in fields as varied
as astronomy, psychology,
and cell biology.

Another course that takes a
cross-disciplinary approach is
"Making Business Work," a
semester-long case experience
that gives students a broad
overview of what it takes to
run a successful enterprise.
Offered by the McIntire
School of Commerce, it is
aimed primarily at first-year
students in the College and
the School of Engineering
and Applied Science and covers
such essential topics as
designing a business model,
understanding financial statements,
developing a marketing
strategy, and analyzing
consumer behavior.

At the graduate and professional
level, the School
of Architecture and the
McIntire Department of Art
have combined their doctoral
programs, creating a new
Ph.D. degree in the history of
art and architecture that will
be available in fall 2005. In
the new Law and Business
Program, faculty in the Law
School join colleagues from
the McIntire School of
Commerce and the Darden
School, as well as real-world
practitioners, to give future
attorneys the skills they need
to serve business clients.

The Engineering School
has been particularly active
in introducing new programs,
thanks in part to
donor support. Among them
is the Engineering in Context initiative, designed to place the
practice of engineering in its broader social, economic, and environmental
framework. Gifts from Lockheed Martin helped
set the program in motion. Students have begun pursuing a new
minor in engineering and business, made possible by a recent
$1 million gift from the Clark Construction Group of Bethesda,
Maryland, and earlier funding from William P. Utt
(Engineering ’79, ’80,Darden ’84). A new undergraduate major
in biomedical engineering capitalizes on the strengths of the
school’s highly regarded graduate program in this field.

The widening scope of
expertise assembled on
Grounds and the dazzling
array of insights emanating
from the University show a
faculty working at the
height of its powers.

In keeping with the Virginia 2020 goals, University courses
increasingly offer a global perspective, and many include an international
experience. The Department of Anthropology has introduced
a minor in global culture and commerce. The School
of Architecture continues a well-established tradition of taking
students abroad, hosting programs in cities as diverse as Beijing,
Venice, and Falmouth, Jamaica. In the Darden School, MBA
students take part in the Global Business Experience, visiting
companies and taking courses over spring break in such locales
as Prague, Shanghai, and Stockholm.

The Power of Poetry

As editor of the most
recent Norton Anthology of
Modern and Contemporary
Poetry, English professor
Jahan Ramazani (College
’81) added 837 poems
and fifty-one new writers
to the collection, which
captures the breadth and
depth of new poetry for
scholars and the reading
public. The two-volume
work has been praised
for conveying what one
reviewer called "the
enduring power of
literature and language."

A HUB OF SCHOLARLY PRODUCTIVITY
The widening scope of expertise
assembled on Grounds and the dazzling
array of insights emanating from
the University show a faculty working
at the height of its powers. Indeed, the
variety and the scale of our research
activities can be seen along just a few
hundred yards of McCormick Road,
where investigators in education, the
sciences, and engineering are making extraordinary headway in
their respective programs.

From Ruffner Hall, Robert C. Pianta, the Novartis US
Foundation Professor of Education, has been studying the way
young children acquire the lifelong learning skills they will need
to succeed.To expand on this work, which has been funded by
the Virginia Preschool Classrooms Initiative, he obtained a
$5 million grant this past year from the National Institute of
Child Health and Development. The award will be used to
demonstrate how Web-based video technology can be employed
to monitor individual preschool instructors and improve their performance.
Teachers are volunteering to be observed and are eager
to work with Prof. Pianta to sharpen their classroom abilities.

Chemist Cassandra Fraser, shown with undergraduates Anna Palumbo
and Brenda Goguen of her research team, coordinated the Common
Course on "Designing Matter."

Across the road in the Department of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering, assistant professor Hilary Bart-Smith
is developing morphing structures that someday could be used
in biomimetic submarines that move like manta rays through
the ocean. Mother Nature has had millions of years to design
the most efficient structures and
systems, explained Prof. Bart-Smith,
who has won a prestigious Packard
Fellowship for Science and Engineering
to support this work. Selected as a
University Teaching Fellow, she is also
the recipient of a National Science
Foundation CAREER Award.

Down the street in Clark Hall, environmental
sciences professor Bruce
Hayden is leading the effort to create
the National Ecological Observatory Network, an initiative that
will include fifteen sites in the United States and Antarctica and
will require up to $500 million in research support over its
thirty-year lifespan. The goal is
to create a large-scale picture
over time of changes in the composition,
structure, and dynamics
of global ecosystems so that we
can predict how these changes
are likely to affect our health and
well-being.

SHARING EXPERTISE FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD
As leaders in their disciplines,
our faculty represent a valuable
resource for shaping public
policy. Jonathan Moreno, the
Emily Davie and Joseph S.
Kornfeld Foundation Professor of
Biomedical Ethics, has been
appointed by the National
Academy of Sciences to serve as
co-chair of an expert panel developing
voluntary guidelines for
human embryonic stem cell
research. The panel will address
such complex issues as the use of
new stem cell lines from surplus
in vitro fertilization embryos,
embryos created by nuclear transplantation,
and those created with
donated reproductive cells.

In the Architecture School,
members of the Institute for
Environmental Negotiation
worked with Fairfax County on
a watershed protection plan,
and they helped Hagerstown,
Maryland, gain community
consensus for reusing a contaminated
Superfund site. They
also joined industry leaders
to form a coalition for sustainable
packaging, and with a
$300,000 grant from the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, they are developing
the Community-Based Collaboratives Research Consortium,
which will bring community organizations together to solve
complex environmental problems such as grazing land disputes
and forest management.